IRISNotes 2 digital pen turns handwritten notes into text documents

One of the problems I had in college wasn’t taking notes during lectures; the problem was keeping up with those notes. I always seemed to lose the most important sheets ahead of the test and ended up scrambling around trying to find them. If you take a lot of notes in college or the business world, the IRISNotes 2 digital pen system may be of interest to you.

This device can take your handwritten notes using what appears to be a normal ink pen and turns those notes into editable text documents on your computer. The system is very easy to use simply requiring you to write on standard sheets of paper. Some systems like this require you to use special paper to transform the notes into digital text.

The system uses a pen that gets power from a battery and a receiver that clips to the top of the notebook or page. The receiver can store 100 pages of text and then download the information to a computer via a USB cable. The software running on the computer uses optical character recognition and converts the handwriting into text that can be sent to Word, Outlook, Notepad and other applications.

The IRISNotes 2 system comes in two versions, including Express and Executive. The Express system ships with a battery-powered pen and four replacement batteries with aluminum carrying case. The Executive version has a pen with a rechargeable battery, a leather carry pouch, and 30-pin connector to share notes directly with the iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. The Express system sells for $99. The Executive system sells for $149, and both are available now.